HP N54L / ASUS AC88U Wake On Lan

[MrGundam]

Hi Guys,

I currently have my ASUS router running wrt-merlin up in the attic of my bungalow and thinking about moving my HP N54L Micro Server running Windows 10 Pro up there as well (not hot / humid and temps never too low).

I use the N54L mainly for the following:
- Mass archive of work related projects
- Online backup via backblaze of archive
- Storage of video footage
- Media server via Plex
- Bittorent
- Remote access from WAN via Microsoft Remote Desktop
- Occasional Blue Iris video security via 3 IP Cameras with remote access when on holiday

I would like to maintain most of this functionality but in order to reduce costs I would like to introduce some form of Wake On Lan feature so it will go into sleep mode when not in use. I am still learning about this but have the general idea.

My main questions are related to how to achieve this in a user friendly way. My wife who is currently running a iMac uses if as a mounted network drive for transferring work related files and she occasionally remote desktops in to more easily navigate the files.

Questions:
1) - Is it possible to have the Microsoft Remote Desktop application wake a sleeping computer?
2) - I have WRT-Merlin flashed on my router which has a WOL section, is this a good route to go?
3) - I often remote desktop in from WAN to initiate downloads etc. Is there a safe method to WOL this way?
4) - Any advice while I am here on having the computer enter low power states when not in use? I assume this is sleep or is hibernate better? Is it easy to have the PC initiate sleep when no torrents, or activity is going on?

Thanks for any help

 

[kab]

It's all completely possible (it's just software, right?), but it's not as automatic as you might think. Read about the "magic packet" and WOL limitations on Wikipedia. Note that other than trivial wasted bandwidth, it's not dangerous in any way to send a magic packet to a machine that is already awake (remember that for later).

-2) Your Micro Server has to support WOL at the NIC and BIOS and OS (win10, check) - presumably, you've already checked that, but I don't assume.
-1) wrt-merlin only gives you short-cut to manually send the magic packet: it doesn't provide any OOB automation to send that packet on some other attempt to access, say ssh or http. Can be scripted for any scenario you can think of, of course, but that gets complex. Also, I'm not sure it would be a great idea, because you might end up accidentally waking that machine for spurious requests.
-0) WOL only reliably works on LAN, much more likely to fail from outside. You can open a UDP port (9) through your firewall and use an internet service (DSLReports had one, probably other places... hmm, should check ASUS if you're using their DDNS?), but I wouldn't open that port. You want some sort of local service that you can reach from outside.
1) I don't believe Remote Desktop, VNC or most other screen sharing programs include WOL support - but I may be wrong. But see note 3 for why you don't want it anyway.
2) What I did for my SO on Mac was use http://www.readpixel.com/wakeonlan/ (there's a similar app for Windows). From inside the LAN, wakeonlan will pop up a pushbutton list of known hosts. That's the "fairly friendly" solution - still requires an extra step.
3) For a while, I wrapped her screen sharing connection in a script to auto-WOL (no harm, remember), but that breaks with every other patch or UI change, and was clumsier than just having the WOL app on her desktop. It takes the host a couple minutes to boot, during which the screen share times out and starts complaining, tossing up "diagnostic" screens and such. Easier to just realize "oh, it's not on - WOL and then wait a couple minutes."
4) For your own use, either go through the management UI of your router (NO, DON'T EVEN THINK OF ALLOWING WAN ACCESS TO YOUR ROUTER MGMT!!!! - seriously, very likely to get hacked) - or more seriously, just plant a WOL script somewhere that you can reach with some security via ssh, a local web page, or whatever. You can easily find scripts (sh, powershell, perl, whatever you like) online - takes all of 10 lines of simple code.

 

[kab]

... hmm, should check ASUS if you're using their DDNS?)

Sure enough, with AiCloud, ASUS can do your WOL (with supported router &c). I have no experience with AiCloud, so no opinion.